


These Small Ways

by AvengersTime



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Deaf Clint Barton, Gen, bby!Clint, deaf fic written by a deaf author
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-10
Updated: 2014-11-10
Packaged: 2018-02-24 21:51:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2597666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AvengersTime/pseuds/AvengersTime
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clint is turned into a four year old. The fact that he's deaf makes things a bit more complicated. (Prompt)</p>
            </blockquote>





	These Small Ways

**Author's Note:**

> Wee!Clint is adorable. I want more of him. I don't know about your guys' experience, but I screamed a lot when I lost my hearing when I was a kid, so I was thinking about that when I wrote this.

These things happen way too often. At least this was something new; they’d never had one of their teammates be engulfed in suspicious purple mist and emerge as a four year old. It was said to be a temporary condition, maybe a few days or a week, and the Avengers would have no problem (assumingly) managing this if they had any idea how to handle a child with hearing loss.

Tiny Clint just kept staring at them. Never for a second did his eyes leave its focus on each of the Avenger’s faces, keeping a firm grip on Natasha’s sleeve and tripping over his own feet once or twice. 

He looked confused a lot, too. He communicated in screams when he wanted something, like some crackers on a table that Steve nodded and said he could have some if he stopped screaming, and Clint would still be screaming, haltingly, as he stuffed crackers into his mouth.

Natasha looked a little more tired than she usually did when dealing with adult Clint. It showed when nighttime came around and she didn’t say a word about Clint crawling onto her bed, curling up with his own blanket and sleeping at the end of the bed like a dog.

The first night, when he woke up and found Natasha gone, he came running out into the hall, yelling “N’sha! N’sha!” until Natasha came back from the kitchen where she’d gotten coffee. It was the closest thing to a word they’d heard from him. That day was full of more word-like sounds and squeals when they played with him, and they could see he was getting better. Clearly he was better with understanding them and communicating as he grew more comfortable. Bruce confirmed this using WebMD.

He still shrieked and pointed when he wanted something when the third day came around, but at least he tried a few more times to talk without leaving the team’s ears ringing. He called Tony “Oony” and Thor “H’or” (or “whore”, because Tony’s a little turd) and that’s all he said, and it was very quiet if he did. If he watched TV and saw a dog he’d screech like a howler monkey, and same goes if JARVIS spoke, probably because he couldn't hear what he was saying or where it was coming from. JARVIS sent private messages through a tablet Tony had on him now or a text through the team’s phones. 

Steve took Clint to the store with, of course, Natasha tagging along because Clint refused to let her out of his sight. His eyes were wide when he saw the stuffed animals, and picked up a tan colored dog and held it up to Steve. “Piz!” 

“What’s that, Clint?” Steve leaned down to him so he could see his lips better. “You want that one?” 

Clint cocked his head, but hugged the dog to him as if to say, “mine.” Steve nodded and Clint grinned. “Piz! Piz!” 

“Either he has to pee or he thought of a name.” Natasha smirked and ran her fingers through Clint’s hair. He flinched but leaned closer to her when he saw who it was and muttered, “Piz’a”

“I think he said pizza.” Natasha shrugged.

“He just ate.” And then saw Clint hold up the dog to his face, petting its soft head, and yell a _little_ too loud “PIZ’A!” again. He winced just barely at the high pitched tone. “Oh. Yeah, he’s thought of a name.” 

Tony came barreling around the toy aisle. Clint jumped and hid behind Natasha's legs. “I have a credit card, Steve, a very large one, and a significant amount of knowledge of what the bird wants. Why would you not bring me?” 

“Because this is only a temporary thing and he doesn’t need an entire fleet of toys and kid stuff, Tony.” Steve rolled his eyes but smiled. “Besides, he hasn't been interested in anything else but that dog. His name is Pizza.” 

Clint looked up when Steve said pizza, and he grinned and offered the dog to Steve. Steve took it, pat it on the head for show, and gave it back to Clint. He squealed and turned around to offer it to Natasha, too, who did the same as Steve. 

“When we have kids, they will have a lot of toys. A lot, Steve. You won’t stop me.” He accused, taking the dog when Clint then gave it to Tony.

Steve frowned. “Did you say _‘when_?’” 

Children were a slightly touchy subject with Steve and Tony. Tony was outwardly terrified of having kids, so he stuttered and skid away with a “What? No, of course not.” 

“Yes, you did, you said _when_ , Tony!” Steve called after him and followed him, clearly delighted that Tony had slipped through his stubborn defiance of “kids are gross”.

"They're weird," Natasha sighed and looked down at Clint. “No offense, but I’m going to miss you as a cute baby.” 

Clint grinned toothily and held up Pizza above his head with both arms. “Piz'a ahhhhhheoooo! S'mba!”


End file.
